Ok... I am fairly new to decorating. I think I am more fond of decorating than I am of actually making the cake haha. My question is... I know that there are directions that usually come with the pans saying how much batter to use in each one BUT does it matter if the batter is more liquidy (is that a word ) or if the batter is thick. It seems like if the batter is thicker it doesn't fill up the pan so I put more in there and it ends up running over the sides and/or not cooking all the way through but if I put less it gets crunchy on the sides. Should I just stick to the measurements no matter? If it says 6 cups then put 6 cups of either consistency? I know this is just trial and error but I would rather not waste a bunch of ingredients if someone already has the answer. Thanks for reading.

Are you baking from scratch, mixes or doctored mixes?

I only ask because there's more variance in types of cake in scratch baking than in regular cake mixes or doctored mixes.

Everything you need to know to make, decorate and assemble stacked/tiered/layer cakes:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html

I find that the Wilton cake preparation charts (in above thread) provide good info on how much batter is required for each pan size...

Here are some threads on achieving 2" cake layers:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-334013-.html

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-22705-chart.html

HTH

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction

I do both scratch and doctored cake mixes...
I like collette peter's chocolate cake but I also use the WASC recipes.